Flint to spend nearly $50,000 on water, sewer rate study

Jason Lorenz, city spokesman, Daugherty Johnson III, city utilities administrator, and Brent Wright, Flint water plant superintendent, tour the water purification facilities on July 22 at the water plant.Jake May | MLive.com

FLINT, MI – The city will spend nearly $50,000 on a water and sewer rate study.

The resolution was signed Nov. 18 and posted on the city’s website Nov. 26.

“With the construction of the KWA intake pipe moving, I’m expressing my commitment to thoroughly reviewing and accessing the scope of that issue,” Earley said in October. “I will be utilizing a third party, expert consultant in order to make fair and impartial assessment on the issues regarding the rates and the bigger issue of the sustainability of the decisions that have been made regarding the KWA.”

The study comes after the city approved a deal that would bring 18 million gallons of water per day through the Karegnondi Water Authority. The pipeline will pump raw water from Lake Huron into Flint’s water treatment plant and distributed to customers throughout the city.

Construction on the intake started in late June and it will take 30 months for the entire project to be complete.

The city currently pays Detroit for its water.

“A rate study will ensure that the long-term cost of providing water and of the KWA decision are accurately and openly reflected in the rates charged to Flint water customers,” Earley previously said.

The water and sewer fund had revenues that exceeded the expenses for about seven years prior to the currently financial emergency declaration, city officials have said

In 2005, water and sewer rates for residents were less than $700 annually. They are now around $1,800.

The study is the first of its kind in the last decade, city officials said.

“There will be no going back and revisiting those issues,” Earley previously said of the decision to use KWA. “This is not an exploratory expedition on ‘what if’ type scenarios.”